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My Nigerian Dream

MY NIGERIAN DREAM

I think I am growing up. A few years or months ago… I’d travel from one state in Nigeria and probably sleep throughout the trip or just read a novel. I always have a book with me when I travel. I used to enjoy village stops because there was always something, a writing with charcoal on the wall, a sign board with mispelt English words on it, children running around without clothes… these were a few of my favorite things. They made me laugh. A lot. They were great conversation starters. Plus I had funny photos to share with friends on social media. Sadly, now I’ve realized that this is nothing to make fun about.

Today I see Nigeria differently. I see Nigeria not for what it is but for what it ought to be.

In Northern Nigerian for instance, there are large expanses of unoccupied lands plus a lot of mud houses on travel roads. Plus crops and plants and trees… beautiful trees.

However, when you look out the window all you see is… overgrown weed that if paid attention to could be or ought to be beautiful scenery.

I saw this photo on twitter *insert photo here* and I was in so much awe. Look what men made with what God provided… That way animals don’t have to share roads with human beings.

Fact is, making a country look beautiful, and breathtaking takes work. Loads of work. And the people have to be involved. They have to participate actively. This would even provide a lot of jobs for the people.

Somehow it just seems like people are more interested in jobs that already exist. And they are looking for job security meanwhile there is a lot of work to do in, for and on Nigeria. Plus, till we start doing the loads of work needed to be done, those jobs will not be created.

A friend of mine looked at me while I kept talking about the possible ways forward and he said “I think we Nigerians are just too set in our comfort zones and we forget that nobody will do this for us but ourselves”.

I now asked a question… “everybody points fingers at the President when things don’t go in order including local government chairmen, state governors and members of councils. What then is the job of these afore mentioned?”

I have #mused about that question for months. I even went as far as saying that our leaders should be in a competition where the best state wins an award and a generation donation by the federal government.

Then another of my friends said “I don’t think that will work. I mean we have and have had a handful of really good governors who have defied all odds and stood out. And “the other governors” haven’t been moved to do better in their states. I don’t think a competition will work”

And that’s how I dropped that train of thought like a bad habit.

Permit me to mention these few governors- Donald Duke!! Fine boy! Fresh ex-governor. Great work. Gov. Fashola. Rugged achiever. A heart for the people of Lagos. Down to earth. Totally cool man. Oshiomole. A man for the people. A man of the people. His people love him. Non-states people admire him. The governor of Gombe state. Have you seen what he is doing with his state? Amazing work. It’s about time!!

Nobody put me up to this. I wasn’t paid to mention these people. I don’t even know them personally (won’t mind meeting them though *wink* but I have followed progress on some states for a while and we should openly commend and recognize those people who give two teeth about our country and these guys have been amazing.

I remembered something one of my highly valued lecturers and supervisor said repeatedly in class which sort of stuck in my head “Every citenzry gets the leadership it deserves… No country having over 70% of its people living in the rural areas can develop without their active participation”.

These states mentioned got their leaders because they decided to vote them in power based on what they were offering. The leaders delivered. They are not perfect but they worked tirelessly. Kudos.

Truth is, we have to too many extents let our leaders go free without as much as holding them responsible for their actions and inactions such that they also point fingers at the federal government for their own inactivity in the state and local government levels and because the followers don’t know they join their immediate leaders in pointing fingers instead of demanding transparency and responsibility from them. Sadly.

Dr. N. T. Ekeanyawu, my lecturer of life!!! – I’m so proud of him. Just had to mention his name- told my class in the university that “show me a country that produces for itself and I’ll show you a country that has the power and vice versa… industrialization is the infrastructure,

every other thing is superstructure”.

We have let the outlook of our country lay fallow for too long. We are a great nation and a good people no doubt but if we want the next generation to stay in Nigeria and work for Nigeria without running to first world nations every opportunity they get, we have to work towards sustainable development because the first world nations that we see today, the beauty and the orderly way of life that have most of their systems working, people made them a reality.

It’s time to change our status. From the underdeveloped /developing nation, to the developed country; from a third world to a first world.

Make a difference in your little way today. Build something special. Invent something. Come up with an energy saving device. Live and interact with integrity. Vote. Vote wisely. Teach. Teach correctly. Teach and enforce civic education. Be proactive in the ministry you are working with. Work on the mind set that you have to be corrupt to survive in Nigeria. Join a queue. Don’t litter the streets. Don’t take a leak by the side of the road (GUYS!!! Take note). Follow traffic rules. It won’t kill you. It only makes you better. Pray. Pray for our leaders for wisdom to do the right thing so that we can have peace and order.

We can make our Nigerian Dream a reality also. . . One day at a time. One step at a time.

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